I enjoy painting these minimalist abstracts. I did not think of them with that term before. But it is a perfect description. Thank you Suzette! I am interested in the minimalist movement. But I am not sure I could ever follow it wholeheartedly. I am a collector of, a few things. LOL. I think most artists are in one way or another.
These start with color. For me. Mood. What feels right. I choose the colors, then think about arrangement and proportion. I tend to go bottom heavy. Weighted. Darker colors below, lighter on top. I think part of that is from my training as a framer. LOL.
For the center bands, I tape off the area to be painted. It ranks even with blending in ease. With blending you have less control. With taping, you are at the mercy of Murphy’s law. And your tape. Haha.
I place two pieces of tape together, so that there is very little actually sticking to the piece. One inch tape, offset slightly lengthwise. On day 7, the green side came out almost perfect. But I had a lot of teeny tiny touching up to do on the buff side. I had to pull out the magnifier. LOL. Day 8 was almost perfect, except for a big blob of buff on the blue.
Whatever the medium, there is the difficulty, challenge, fascination and often productive clumsiness of learning a new method: the wonderful puzzles and problems of translating with new materials. Helen Frankenthaler
A painting is not a picture of an experience, but is the experience. Mark Rothko
I have mountains of Mingus photos. Haha. Many times, it is more about the sky action, but Mingus makes an awesome frame. More sky painting practice today. I need to practice creating distance as well. I’ll keep working at it. 🙂
Always think about practice… theory is not the endpoint of work, it is the work along the way to work. Felix Gonzalez-Torres
To gain confidence, constant practice is essential. Just as a musician needs to practice regularly to retain his touch, the watercolorist needs to be constantly in touch with the medium. Robert Lovett
For day 8, a Saguaro. Sentinel and symbol of the southwest. They grow taller than many trees, up to 40 feet. They are strictly protected in Arizona.
About a year ago I purchased a pad of inexpensive paper to use for watercolor. I knew it was not good quality, but I thought it would be good for practice. I also used it with acrylics, and it worked pretty well.
I really fell in love with the texture, and I used the whole pad. I have been trying to find more since then. Haha. Thought I did, and I bought two pads when they were 50% off. This paper is slightly different. The texture before was straight horizontal lines. Now it looks like there are two patterns, one straight, and one sort of wavy. Here’s an example of what I remember.
Maybe this paper is the same. I had fun working on today’s piece. It started loose and fast. I worked really wet, puddles, and the paper held up, not warped. This is Hobby Lobby’s Master’s Touch brand. 140 lb., premium watercolor pad. I also have a pad of their regular watercolor paper, I’ll try that next. The textures are different.
Day 8 WIP
Day 8 close-up
I revisited two previous works. For the aloe, I used a digital edit. The original is still intact. I like both versions, but I do think the drips competed for attention. I also shortened the small dark leaf. For me, the edit wins.
I had so much fun with the Paddle Plant. Three cheers for Arches paper, and its ability to take a good scrubbing. I left some of the Indigo, I was afraid to get to close, and ruin a leaf. It acts as a shadow, and I really like that. I do see one area, above the right, top leaf, where I could go back in and soften a little more.
I LOVE the way this turned out. I love the hints of dark beneath. The softness of the wash. It was a fairly thick wash, but it looks translucent. LOVE this!
Below is what was left after I scrubbed the indigo off. I also used some Winsor & Newton Turquoise in areas, and the variation in the stain is interesting. I LOVE this one as well! Crazy right? The neutrals really allow the other colors to pop. It makes me think of a tablecloth in shadow, low light.
